Touch the Infinite

THE FOUR IMMEASURABLES are variously known as the “abodes of Brahma” (brahmavihara), divine abidings, heavenly abodes, or the four sublime or excellent states. They are excellent because, in their manifestation, they are limitless. They are sublime because they point to the most wholesome, most loving, most affirming way of relating to others and ourselves.

Louis Massignon, a Catholic scholar of Islam, said religious historians should, through their scholarship, broaden their